Importance of Branding for Startups
When launching a new business or product, the importance of branding cannot be overlooked. It’s essential that startups create a unique brand identity from inception that establishes trust and communicates their values to customers. A well-defined brand can help differentiate your startup from competitors and create an emotional connection with customers that will keep them coming back. Let’s explore why branding is so important.
Brand Recognition
Establishing strong brand recognition is one of the key benefits of having a well-defined brand identity. Doing so allows consumers to recognize your company quickly and easily, whether they are looking at your website or seeing your logo on social media. A strong brand also gives customers the confidence to purchase from you; if they have seen your logo before, it signals legitimacy and trustworthiness.
Success Story: It’s hard to imagine a startup that runs away from brand identity would be one of the most imaginative brands around, but California-based Brandless has achieved this distinction. The direct-to-consumer company sells simple, inexpensive products in categories including health, beauty, home, baby and travel, and has created loyal customers who appreciate its unique approach. Brandless’ social channels have all positive, conscious messaging, which aligns well with simpler lives the company is encouraging.
Brand Differentiation
In today’s highly competitive startup world, having a unique identity can give you an edge over the competition. Your branding needs to clearly communicate what makes your product or service stand out from other similar offerings on the market. If you don’t have a clear differentiation from competitors, customers may not even know you exist! Crafting a unique message through effective branding can help potential customers understand why they should choose your product or service over others on the market.
Success Story: In the world of insurance branding, companies try hard to differentiate themselves to better tell their stories and to create trust. New York-based home and renter’s insurance startup Lemonade sticks out because it heavily uses the color pink, and its messaging is that of a friend that’s working to help you. The company also has a wild Instagram account that gives new meaning to your purchases being “covered.”
Customer Loyalty
Creating an emotional connection with customers is one of the best ways to ensure long-term loyalty and revenue growth for any business — including startups! When done right, strong branding elicits positive feelings in potential customers; this in turn increases customer loyalty and encourages repeat purchases as well as referrals to potential new customers. A successful startup needs loyal fans who will share their experience of the brand via word-of-mouth- great branding can help make that happen.
Success Story: No matter how you feel about electric scooters, the California-based unicorn scooter startup Bird has undeniably created a compelling brand that encourages users to try Bird scooters in North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East. The Bird logo, website, app and scooters are all primarily designed in sleek black and white, showing consistency. The company’s welcoming branding extends to its social media channels, which are filled with images of people of different ages and backgrounds using scooters and messages about building sustainable cities.
Types of Branding (most relevant for startups)
While there are numerous forms of branding, some of the most relevant ones for startups in the early days of their growth are:
Personal Branding: Startups are initially just the founder(s) and a few set of people who follow them. Therefore, a large part of the company ethos is determined by the founder(s) and their personality, vision and quirks and that is what becomes the company DNA.
Several employees and customers may also associate the founders and the company to be inseparably linked together in name and reputation, so crafting a powerful personal brand is also critical for founders. They should use online and offline channels to become opinion leaders in their startup field and share their views and expertise with a wider audience to garner repute for both themselves and their businesses. Some cases where startups/businesses became synonymous with the founder (for better or worse) include Steve Jobs and Apple, Adam Neumann and WeWork and Travis Kalanick and Uber. Founders should proactively control their personal brand before their audience forms incorrect perceptions about them and consequently their business.
Success Story: Running the most successful blog in the world (just type ‘Seth’ in Google and you’d know), Seth Godin is the super marketer, entrepreneur, author, and public speaker all of us folks look up to. Rightly known as the Godfather of Modern Marketing, who does the kind of marketing we’d all want to do.
Almost all of his success, be it his numerous bestsellers or his best-selling courses on Udemy, is because of his personal brand as the post-industrial era marketing genius. His blog is ranked #2 in Inbound.org’s ‘Top 50 Marketing Blogs On The Web’ list. However, his book, ‘The Icarus Deception’ is the most remarkable example of his business success because of his personal brand. He launched the book on Kickstarter with a $40,000 goal. The campaign reached its goal in less than 3 hours and went on to raise $287,342 from 4,242 backers and it remains one of the most successful book launches on Kickstarter.
Corporate Branding: This is a tool that a startup can use to tell its story and personality; what it is truly like on the inside. Corporate branding includes values, mission, price points, target audience, exclusivity for customers, inclusivity for employees etc. It also includes the perks that may be offered to employees that would make them proud of being a part of the startup – bonuses, stock options, the chance to work for a sustainable enterprise, challenging work, stellar teammates, free meals etc. All of these elements will make a startup standout as a distinct corporate entity capable of attracting the finest talent from all over the country or even the world, something that a startup could really use to evolve successfully.
Online Branding: Online branding has become even more important in the post-pandemic era for businesses of all sizes. Influencers tend to give new businesses a more relatable feel and a marketing channel that directly reaches their audience, but must be kept authentic and relevant to avoid coming across as just another paid promotion case. Other than social media, online branding also includes creating a strong website with an intuitive interface and design that matches the brand personality.
Success Story: MOZ was started in 2004 by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig. While their free guides like “The Beginner’s Guide to SEO” or the “Search Ranking Factors” study helped put them on the content marketing map, it was their Whiteboard Friday series that amplified their reach the most. Whiteboard Fridays are weekly videos where you are presented with an SEO strategy with a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough. The series quickly became a staple to the brand and to the digital marketer community, as well. In 2016, average views were about 15-20,000 per video. Today, they have accumulated millions of views. The branding is so strong that they rank on page 2 for the single keyword “whiteboard.”
Conclusion: Branding is essential for any business, but especially for startups that need to establish themselves in a competitive space quickly and effectively. Investing in good branding will help you create recognition, differentiate yourself from competitors, and establish customer loyalty – all necessary components for success in any industry! No matter what type of startup you’re running, having a well-crafted brand will set you up for long-term success and growth.